What? Do we continue to have an electoral hangover? Political deadlock? Well, there is still time to form a government! In any case, and after the Catalan elections and before we continue with the European ones, maybe today is a good day, after all the interpretations, the information, the analyses, minutes and results of yesterday, so to speak, it could be that with a bit of a bad idea, that in certain intellectual circles – or assimilated – the census suffrage is again spoken of in a laudatory manner, that which imposes, in order to be able to exercise the right to vote, certain prior economic, social or academic training.
The pendulum of history has swung and the old things seem like the future to some. Universal male suffrage for over twenty-five years of age was established in Spain in 1869, after the Gloriosa that dethroned Isabel II, the one of sad destinies, although with the Restoration it returned to census suffrage ( an illiterate who can’t even sign can’t have the right to vote!) and, in fact, it will have to wait until 1890 for universal male suffrage to be consolidated. Women had to wait much longer, until the Second Republic, so universal universal suffrage has only existed since 1931. It’s not even a century ago…
The liberals of Sagasta were decisive in approving that universal male suffrage in 1890, despite the opinion against D on Práxedes in person, who went so far as to affirm that “universal suffrage means the triumph of ignorance”. It could be that today some candidate is thinking something similar or doubting whether compulsory voting, which also exists in some countries, would not be a way to perfect (sic) democracy. Which remains, by the way, the worst system of government, with the exception of all the others. Churchill said. And it is axiom and prophecy.
